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Michael's Tinkerings

Thoughts, stories and ideas about tech.

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Width over Depth: Kamrui Hyper H1 7735HS Review

At $489.99 the Kamrui Hyper H1 walks into a crowded slice of the mini PC market with a spec sheet that looks, on paper, like a mid-range gaming tier compressed into a budget chassis. An AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS, 24 GB of LPDDR5-5500, a 1 TB NVMe SSD, a

Apple M5 GPU Roofline Analysis

In this deep dive, we will examine M5's GPU performance across various workloads. TLDR: It can be very powerful if the programmer knows how to use it correctly.

M5 MacBook Air Review - The Laptop You Should Actually Buy

The base model M5 MacBook Air 15-inch delivers more CPU performance than a Ryzen 9 5950X desktop in complete silence, with no fan. Its 15.3-inch 16:10 display, all-day battery life, and fanless design make it the best laptop in its price range. Stop worrying about specs.

Nobody Puts Windows on a Mac Anymore

How Microsoft's poor execution is driving away customers, and how Apple took the chance to gain more.

Ryzen 7 8745HS (Zen 4 APU, Phoenix) - Part II: 780M iGPU Roofline & Bandwidth Analysis

This this technical deep-dive, we explored how iGPU performance may not scale with their spec, and how you can spend your money wisely.

Ryzen 7 8745HS (Zen 4 APU, Phoenix) Part I: General Performance Analysis

Ryzen 7 8745HS power and thermal analysis in the AceMagic W1 mini PC. BIOS unlock boosts CPU performance 7.7% by raising TjMax from 85 to 95°C. GPU benchmarks reveal a DDR5 bandwidth wall at 35-40W, where the Radeon 780M retains over 90% of peak gaming performance at a fraction of full power.

One Day with CachyOS: An Arch Experience Without the Arch Pain

I've been a Windows user for most of my computing life. My main daily driver is an M1 Max Mac Studio, but that's strictly a productivity machine: code, writing, the occasional terminal rabbit hole. For everything else — gaming, tinkering, the stuff that doesn't

The MT7922 6GHz Debacle: Why Linux Users Can't Use WiFi 6E (And How I Fixed It)

I recently upgraded to a UniFi Dream Router 7. It has a 6GHz radio. My AceMagic W1 mini PC (AMD Ryzen 7 8745HS) has a MediaTek MT7922, a WiFi 6E chip. Both sides support 6GHz. You'd think connecting them would be straightforward. It was not. The Setup My

Hybrid Muscle, Budget Bones: The Kamrui Hyper i5-14450HX Mini PC Review

The mini PC market continues to push the boundaries of compact computing, and today I'm examining Kamrui's latest offering built around Intel's 14th generation i5-14450HX processor. At approximately $500, this system pairs a capable hybrid-architecture CPU with budget-oriented supporting components, a combination that raises

Debugging Matrix Synapse Room Creation: The Tale of Encoded Hashes and Traefik v3

How to Solve "Room Address is Already in Use" with Matrix Synapse

Lekuo RTL9101 M.2 to 8-Port SATA HBA Review: True Multi-Port Architecture Without Multiplexing Compromises

The Lekuo RTL9101 M.2 SATA HBA represents a fundamental shift in M.2 storage expansion, delivering eight SATA 6Gbps ports through native controller architecture rather than port multiplication.

Affordable Performance: The Kamrui Hyper H2 i9-11900H Mini PC Review

This mini PC pairs Intel's 11th-generation i9-11900H—a processor from the company's troubled 2021 transition period—with budget components to create a surprisingly capable value system.

Overpowered Yet Underpowered: The Paradox of AceMagic M1 with 13900HK (With One Exception)

This mini PC packs Intel's flagship i9-13900HK processor (6P+8E cores), 32GB DDR4 RAM, PCIe Gen 4 storage, and Iris Xe graphics into a compact dark grey chassis.

The macOS Storage Speed Myth, Part 2: Unpacking Sequential vs. Random Access in the Age of Flash

In this installment of SSD explainers, we will crack the myth between sequential and random access.

The macOS Storage Speed Myth, Part 1: Decoding SSD Benchmarks and Real-World File Operations

Mac storage upgrades cost a fortune but promise blazing speeds. Don’t be fooled—benchmarks like 6300 MB/s is something you will probably never see in real life.